Village Food in Thailand – SHRIMP CURRY and FORAGED VEGETABLES in Trat, Thailand!

Get ready to try some unique Eastern Thai food in beautiful village in Trat!
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Day 4 (Trat ตราด): Eastern Thailand Food and Travel Tour. Watch all 8 videos here:

Trat (ตราด) is a beautiful tropical province in Eastern Thailand, home to a wonderful culture and lots of delicious food. But one of the best places to eat Thai food is in someone’s home, home cooked food is the best. So today we had the opportunity to visit a village in Trat, forage for a few ingredients, and cook some amazing, very local regional specialities.

Baan Huai Raeng (บ้านห้วยแร้ง) – This is a beautiful tropical village, and they also offer home-stays and cultural tourism. I contacted them to arrange a food experience, and I think they did a fantastic job.

Khao haw kab mak (ข้าวห่อกาบหมาก) – This is the first dish that Aunty made, a mix of fried rice and ingredients all within a banana leaf and another outer wrapper. It was a delicious mix, soothing in the morning.

Khanom jeen sao nam (ขนมจีนซาวน้ำ) – This wasn’t planned at all, but Uncle was planning for another group and decided to make a dish for all of us to eat – khanom jeen sao nam. This is a Royal Thai food dish, that’s not common to find, and it was delicious.

HEre are the two main regional Thai food dishes we cooked:

Sour curry with local vine called sandan (แกงส้มใบสันดาน) – I still can’t find the name in English of the local vine, and they made a sour curry with fish and shrimp. Awesome dish.

Gaeng kradom (แกงกระดอม) – The little fruit is called Gymnopetalum chinense in English and it’s bitter tasting. They made a curry with shrimp and curry paste. It was awesome, I loved the bitterness.

Interesting ingredients:
Chamuang (ชมวง) – gacinia cowa
Bai sandan (ใบสันดาน) – local vine
Kradom (กระดอม) – Gymnopetalum chinense

It was a fantastic day in Trat, exploring regional Thai food and unique dishes and ingredients in the village!

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– Good morning, I hope you’re having an amazing day. It’s Mark Wiens, I’m in Trat, Thailand and this is day four of our eastern provinces of Thailand food and travel tour. Today I have a very special day for you. We are on our way to Baan Huai Raeng,

Which is a community in the forests in Trat, and they are gonna cook for us some local, very seasonal dishes, using some of the local ingredients from this area. I’m not sure what they’re gonna cook for us but I know it’s gonna be delicious and I’m gonna share

It all with you in this video right now. It was about a 25 minute drive to get here from the center of Trat Town and we are at Wat Plai Klong, which is a temple where someone from the community is about to pick us up and then we’re gonna get started cooking and eating, they should be here any minute. They came to pick us up. We are following them into the village now. Okay and here we are. Oh wow, this place, this place is gorgeous. – Lots of friendly dogs, we have met up with the family; this is where we’re gonna cook, this is where we’re gonna eat, it’s gorgeous. They’re fruit trees; it’s lush. Oh wow, this house is absolutely gorgeous. You gotta love that doormat: an old pair of jeans

But you walk up to this platform, it’s elevated, it’s a huge communal platform, this is traditional Trat style and it’s gorgeous. I mean you have the open air breeze; you have this whole community section here. I think the kitchen is back there and then over on this side

You have more of the room section where you can sleep, and they have the mosquito nets over there as well. I’m loving it already. – It’s actually gonna be a very, it’s not just fried rice, it’s gonna be combined with a bunch of ingredients and wrapped up in some time of leaf wrapper but also a banana leaf, so we’re gonna go get a banana leaf too. Oh, this is a tropical paradise, there are durian trees, bananas, mangosteen, rambutan, and it’s not quite there in season yet, so you can see the little dirt; oh I just got bit by an ant. Oh yeah look at that ant. – You remember the dish it’s called chamuang which in English it’s called cowa garcinia. Oh I’m so getting bit by ants. Cowa garcinia leaves, this is the tree right here, these are the leaves; I know it’s an evergreen type of tree but it’s very, very commonly eaten in this region of eastern Thailand.

They literally have everything that you need for a Trat Thai feast within their yard, within this jungle, it’s gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. What’s the actual name of it? – It’s like a little purse, (speaks foreign language), and that’s the official name of it; so she took some of the fried rice stirred fried with that numb pig and the she adds in all the components of ingredients, specifically quite a lot of pineapple, a cucumber,

A salted egg, and a handful of cashews, and fried fish. And that all gets wrapped up first into a banana leaf and then into that extra giant leaf, and she makes a pear-shape, that’s, that’s cool. – [Presenter] Michael can you show your haul? So that’s like a little lunch box purse that’s all everything you need for a complete meal wrapped up in that leaf. Something else that’s very cool, and I didn’t know this from the start is that this is a little spoon,

All-natural, and that she includes in this packet. And even this string, this is all natural, this is made from the same wrapper, the greater wrapper. It’s absolutely beautiful. A little packet, the spoon is particularly cool, this is what I’m most excited to use. I’m gonna get a little bit of that salted egg.

I’m gonna get a little bit of that pineapple, that fish, and oh I have a cashew, I gotta have a cashew on this bite too. Scoop up a little bit and there’s also a purple sweet potato in the rice as well, oh what a bite! – Oh that’s delicious. I mean the rice has a little bit of a shrimp paste flavor to it, I think there’s some shrimp paste in that nam phrik, and then you’ve got the starchy pieces of sweet potato; you’ve got that sweet balance of acidic pineapple, and then the crunchy fish, that’s awesome.

That’s such like a soothing mix. – It’s really, awesomely good. Yeah, it’s just such a harmony of ingredients and so many different things going on. – She’s getting me immediately started on the next dish and she’s making a curry with this fruit called kradom, and if I were just to guess, I’ve never seen it before in Thailand, I’ve never seen it before in my life, but if I were to guess it looks pretty sour,

With little green fruits like that, but the first step is that I could be totally wrong, the first step is she added some salt and she’s just mixing that around and then they’re gonna cook it with shrimp. Back in the kitchen they are squeezing the coconut milk by hand that you know it’s gonna be that that ups the notch, fresh coconut milk that makes all the difference. – While the curry was cooking we headed out to forage a seasonal ingredient along the banks of the water. We are now going off into a boat to get an ingredient; it’s a leaf, I’m not totally sure what it is, I’ve never had it before, we’re gonna get the leaf;

We’re gonna bring it back and they’re gonna make one more dish and then we’re gonna eat. I can’t wait to try that other curry with the shrimp and then the other dish that she’s gonna make. So the house is actually right next to a river. – And again he told me this was brackish water and that’s part of the reason why the fruit and the ingredients in this area are so good; they say because of the brackish water the mangoes are extremely sweet. – And this is the type of leaf, I think it’s a vine actually, it’s the red vine, it has a red color to it. It looks like it’s kinda tangled with some bamboo and that’s what we’re gonna get. Wow, the whole vine. – He’s pulled that vine off, that is straight forage to leaves, vines, from the jungle for the dish he’s gonna make. – We’re back at the house now, with that leaf, with that vine, they’re gonna make gaeng som which is a sour curry. Gaeng som by Son Don. – [Presenter Voiceover] While the menu is being prepared we took another break to eat another pre-meal.

This time a royal Thai dish called Kanom Jeen Sao Nam Uncle had made it himself for the family and we just happened to have honor to be there for the occasion. – This was a surprise I didn’t even know they were making this dish but it’s called Kanom Jeen Sao Nam,

And this is a really old, traditional Thai dish, very hard to find, but it’s a summer dish in the hot weather you eat with the khao kan chin, which is the soft rice noodles and you have all the different components, with the curry, yeah, it’s fantastic, and we’re all

Sitting down to eat it right now. – There are so many ingredients. This is an exciting dish to eat. – [Presenter] Pineapple? – [Male] Yeah. – [Presenter] This is ginger? – [Male] Yes. – [Presenter] Raw garlic. – [Presenter] I got all the components and now it’s time to add the real, actual curry with the fish meatballs in here. I’m gonna add it to the side there. – [Presenter] The fish balls are fresh and they are very spongy; oh the garlic and the ginger down there too. I need a little bit of all of this. – Oh wow. – And uncle is telling us that he made this special, very special, it was completely unplanned. The sum of all the ingredients together that makes it spectacular; you’ve got the coconut milk with the fish balls, you’ve got what I like is the ginger and garlic but paired with that salty

Fish sauce and then the sweet pineapple. What a contrast. What a delicious mix in your mouth and this is actually a traditional Royal Palace Thai dish. – [Presenter] So I can get a half? – Yeah. – Okay it’s so good, I need some more, a little bit more. – There’s no way you’ll not have a re-fill of this. The entire sum of the ingredients, but these fish balls are notable, they are stunning, that springy texture, all-natural, all-fish, he just pounds it with salt he said, and he pounded it by hand, the fish balls;

That’s why they’re all random shapes and sizes, and those are some of the fish balls you’ll ever have. It’s awesome and I really don’t know what we’re doing; the day has sort of shifted, we’re just kind of hanging around eating and I’m loving every moment of it. – At first I can see he added the chili paste, he added some extra chilies, and then he just added in some sour tamarind. – It’s barracuda, very fresh barracuda, and he said: once you add in the fish and the shrimp you don’t wanna stir it very much or it will get a bad smell. – He put in the entire heap of those leaves and that was a mound of leaves, and they immediately turn from a bright green color to a kind of brown-green color. – And final step is to add in a bunch of shrimp. – Mm, mm, okay should have three flavors, sour, salty, sweet. – Yes. Switzerland, bye. – Sourness coming from the leaves and the tamarind. Oh, that’s beautifully sour. – We are sitting down yet again to eat but these are the two dishes that are specifically the seasonal dishes from this region in Trat; these are ingredients the forage divines and then that other little fruit with the shrimp curry, it looks delicious and I can’t wait to taste it.

So this one is the gaeng kradom with the little fruits, they’re all below here, all of that coconut milk, and then the shrimp; I have to just taste some of that fruit first with some of that curry. – Wow, I like. I like. – Okay that’s exactly right, he’s telling me you get the bitter first taste and then as you keep on chewing it’s starts to get a little sweeter as it goes down. But yeah, I was totally expecting it to be sour, not really sour; but yeah it is bitter, kind of like

Bitter corn, but a more subtle bitter; then it’s wrapped up in that fresh coconut milk and then it’s a little bit spicy, you’ve got that shrimp inside of there, oh, that’s spectacular. That’s fantastic. I love that bitterness. Okay and next up is the gaeng som by Son Don,

Which again is that leaf and there’s fish in here, and we saw him make the whole thing in these giant prawn shrimp, ah but that leaf; I’m most excited about that leaf. Those leaves are outstanding, such a sour flavor, when you cook them, they really are more soft

And more silky than spinach; they require almost no chewing, they just sort of dissolve in your mouth. And he was very careful not to overcook the shrimp; oh wow, these are very soft though, the shell. First eat the shrimp then I’ll chase it with this bite of rice with some of the leaves. – Oh, that shrimp is incredible. It’s so tender and then the mangoun which is the tamale, the head and butter juices, it’s so creamy and so rich. What a fantastic leaf and doesn’t get better than foraged leaves and vegetables. Just wild, natural supreme, that’s one of those leaves that’s so sour it immediately

Leaves that sour sour chalkiness on your teeth. And that one is spectacular too. You know they’re both really good. Both totally, completely opposite in flavors. And on our way out the family graciously gave us an entire bagful of bananas right from their garden. What a fantastic day. What delicious food. And a little insight into the village life, community life in Trat; a big thank you to the family for hosting us and grandma for cooking,

And uncle also those special dishes. We didn’t really plan much of what we we were gonna do and it just unfolded as it did. I’ll have some information in the description box below but the the community is called Baan Huai Raeng, and please remember to give this video a thumbs up,

And if you’re not already subscribed, click subscribe now and also click the little bell icon so that you get notified of all the future videos. Thanks again for watching and I will see you on the next video.